For this event we currently have 108 seats alloted. We thought that would be more than enough. In fact, with over a month to go, 74 of those seats are accounted for. It may well be that we sell out even before our next price discount cut off of May 15.

I don't want you to be upset later. If you have been procrastinating, please take a moment to decide to join us. If you have misplace the brochure or order form, links to both are below.

Also, some people have asked "who is coming?" The PRIMARY registrants are on a list and the link to that list is below.

The Conference Brochure is Here (its 19 pages and some have called it an education in and of itself.)

Note that the list does not include situations where more than one lawyer is coming from an office or where the marketing director of an office is also attending. As of 3:30 this afternoon, we have 74 total seats taken for.

Remember, if we have any seats after May 15, those are all full price seats.

In other words: if you have a dollar to spend and an hour to use, where do you start?
Here are some tips:

1. Get control of (or start) your client database. I'm shocked at how many lawyers don't have a marketing database. Marketing to people who know you, like you and find you interesting is far more effective than marketing to the 'masses.' Thus, you need a data base of folks who have said to you "Market to me." Every time someone visits your website or calls your office their name goes into your database to be marketed over and over again.

2. Make yourself the "guru"--become an author. There is no better way to establish your self as the wise man/woman at the top of the mountain than to become an author. I've written The Utlimate Guide to Virginia Auto Accidents and The Truth About Lawyer Advertising. Its not that hard.

3. There are two types of media, "inbound" and "outbound." "Inbound" media is the media consumers are using when they are hunting for you. Today, its the Internet and (still) the Yellow Pages. Perfect these media for your law practice before spending tons of money on "outbound" media. "Outbound media" is TV, radio, print and anything else where you are just sending out a message and hoping it hits someone who might just need what your business offers today. Outbound media is "sexy" (you get to see yourself on TV. Inbound media is the most cost-effective way to market yourself. Don't skip over it.

4. Work on making an irresistible offer. What would almost force the consumer to contact your first? Clue: it ain't "Free Consultation." It should be unique. For many, that irresistible offer can be an offer of information that will help the potential client solve their problem. We are in a 'research' world.

5. Develop your "Shock and Awe" package.When the client raises their hand and says "I'm interested in what you have to say about my problem," have a multi-media package ready to send to them. Reports, books, CD's and video's. I can almost guarantee that no one else in your market it doing this. More work, certainly, but tremendously effective.

6. Master the Internet (or at least know how to talk to your webmaster). It doesn't' matter how pretty your web site is if it isn't on the first page of Google. As the business owner you need to understand search engine optimization or hire someone who is an expert. The great thing about this is that its easy to test. If you are a personal injury  attorney in Houston and typing personal injury attorney in Houston" doesn't put you on the first page of Google, then you have work to do. The company that puts me on the first page of Google is Foster Web Marketing.

7. Develop your newsletter system. There is no better way to stay in constant contact with your database than through an interesting print newsletter mailed (not emailed) monthly. Don't use a canned newsletter. Don't slap you name on some boring waste fof paper. Become a personality. Be interesting.

8. Associate with folks who do this better than you do. Most business owners put "learning about marketing" too far down their list of things to do. As Michael Gerber says in the E-Myth, we are too busy working "in" the business to work "on" the business. You have to reverse that and find the time to work "on" your business. A great way to do this is to find or start a mastermind group of like-minded entrepreneurial business owners who will commit to getting together frequently to help each other think about their businesses and, importantly, their marketing. This is not a business "cross-referral" group. This is a thinking group.

Far to many attorneys are willing to throw their marketing resources of time and money at the glitzy TV ads without really thinking about the effective ways to build and nurture a relationship with customers and patients through a system of attracting their attention with interesting advertising and irresistible offers and then maintaining that contact through frequent newsletter "touches."

If you haven't heard of Dan Kennedy let me give you the
quick run-down. As a marketing consultant he has worked hands-on with clients in 136 different product, service, and business categories.

Dan and I have recently teamed up to co-author the Ultimate Success Secret.
He routinely commands fees of $19,000.00 per
day for private consulting, $45,000.00 to as much as
$75,000.00 plus royalties to write an ad campaign, series
of sales letters or other marketing materials, with over
80% of all clients who utilize his services once opting to
do so repeatedly. Many of these client relationships are
now 5, 7, 10, even 15 years in duration.

Frankly the No BS Marketing Letter alone is like a day-long, intense seminar in print arriving every month in your mailbox.I promise once you start reading this newsletter you'll be hooked. Simply put, that's the whole reason he'll let me make this sensational offer.

Go see the entire offer here.

The North Carolina opinion on the use of a bear in lawyer advertising is here.

This is the first book Dan Kennedy has co-authored with a lawyer and I had to arm-wrestle him to agree to do it....but here it is.

Find out more about what's inside and how you can get yours at TheUltimateSuccessSecret.

"... Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania, who studies positive psychology, says most optimists do better in life than merited by their talents alone.

But with lawyers, the opposite is true.

Seligman's survey of law students at the University of Virginia found that pessimists got better grades, were more likely to make law review and got better job offers.

"In law," he told the newspaper, 'pessimism is considered prudence.' "

I think that Seligman's conclusion,suggesting that lawyers who are pessimists have better lives, is flawed.

Why?

He equates "do better in life" with getting better grades, making law review and getting better job offers.

That's silly. None of those things necessarily equates with a "better life." In fact, many lawyers I know who got the best grades, made law review and had "better" job offers out of school have miserable lives.

Life is what you make it. Hang out with postive thinkers, not Eeyore.